Awards / Scholarships

Well deserved! Congratulations!

February 2024

PTR Foundation Humanitarian Award

Lisa Pugliese, Love Serving Autism, founder is our 2024 Humanitarian award winner.

March 2024

2024 Dennis Van der Meer Educational Scholarship

PTR Italy and PTR Foundation is proud to award 2024 Dennis Van der Meer Educational scholarship to outstanding tennis professionals: Bazzoni Eleonora, Betti Edoardo, Cocchini Gianguido, Patimo Eleonora and Zanetti Daniele.

March 2024

Billie Jean King Champions of Excellence Recipients

For International Women’s month, the PTR Foundation has recognized four inspiring women in tennis as our Billie Jean King Champions of Excellence award recipients.  They received a certificate of appreciation and a $500 scholarship towards their continuing education. The recipients are: Patricia Rogulski, Darnesha Moore,  Jessica Weyreuter and Shelby Baron.

April 2024

Dennis Van der Meer Educational Scholarship

PTR Italy and PTR Foundation is proud to award 2024 Dennis Van der Meer Educational scholarship to outstanding tennis professionals: Marco Cavati, Elisa Mainardi

August 2024

PTR Italy Awarded 7 VDM Educational Scholarships

Congratulations to the following members for their outstanding performance on and off the court:
Alessio  Capoluongo, Giulia Esposito, Francesco Godino, Lucas Melone, Niccolò Pozzi, Gabriel Variano, Felice Matteo Oliva

Humanitarian Award Winners

Lisa Pugliese
Vania King
Michael-Ray Pallares
Karl Hale
Sylvia Swartz
Richard Spurling
Nancy Hoekstra
Vicky Matarazzo
Jana Hunsaker
Nelly Caro
William Redd
Juergen Raab
Lloyd Dillon
Adam Jasick
Habtu Afework Belayneh
Aruna Bernier
Michael Paul
Diana Seggie
David Altshuler
Linda McCollum
Johnny Nicola
Arvelia Myers
Ernest Greene
Sheila Bolin
Mike Bachicha
Dick Overall
Philip Betancourt
Tony and Liezel Huber
Enrique Ninete
Dr. Elizabeth Odera
Johnny Van Session
Roger Mitten
Sandor Taraszovics
Harold Conway
Jack Geisel
Susan Nickerson

February 2023
PTR Foundation Humanitarian Award

Nancy Hoekstra’s tireless work and boundless energy dedicated to the Special Olympics athletes won her PTR Foundation Humanitarian award for the second time. Thank you, Nancy, for all you do for the athletes and for the tennis community.

February 2023
Jean H. Mills Inducted into the PTR Hall of Fame

Our board member, Jean H. Mills was inducted into the PTR Hall of Fame. Lucy Garvin perfectly delivered an award presentation speech. Jean was the first woman in the world to earn the PTR designation of “International Master Professional,” and was the first woman to serve on the PTR’s Board of Directors. Jean, you rock!

March 2023
PTR Foundation Awards 14 Scholarships to Women

We celebrated International Women’s Month by awarding ten scholarships to women who took PTR Level 1 in March. Thank you to the PTR staff for helping us select the award recipients. Welcome to all the new women certified PTR members!

With our donors’ assistance, we hope to continue to grant awards to women tennis coaches next year as well.

Madie Renner, an award recipient wrote this:

“Madie wants to thank all of her amazing coaches she has had in her life, as well as her Grandpa John for passing down his love of tennis to her. Thank you to the PTR Foundation for this amazing opportunity to continue growing in her coaching career. She is very excited to be a part of the PTR family!”

April 2023
PTR Italy Awards 7 Dennis Van der Meer Educational Scholarships

The first scholarships allocated by the PTR Foundation were awarded to the young tennis players of the PTR Next Gen Coach – VDM Educational Scholarship project who were able to benefit from it to participate in their first certification course with PTR. Thanks to the intervention of the PTRF, access to the training course was facilitated for Sofia, Nicolò, Riccardo, Tommaso, Giacomo, and Niccolò who started their journey in the world of teaching with the course organized by PTR Italia “Tennis 10 & Under”.

The manager of the PTR Next Gen Coach Italia project, Carlo Alberto Massaro and the young teachers thank the PTRF for the opportunity given and are committed to giving their best to continue the growth path trying, thanks to their young age, to bring freshness and novelty to the teaching sector. Finally, we underline that they have all brilliantly passed the international certification tests, presenting themselves at their best in the world of work and keeping the name of the PTR Foundation high.

June 2023
PTR Italy Awards 6 Educational Scholarships

The recipients received scholarships to attend the Next Gen PTR certification course.  We want to share with you a thank you note from Alessandro, one of the Italian scholarship recipients.

“My name is Alessandro and on behalf of all PTR Next Gen Coaches we would like to thank you for the scholarship and for the contribution that you gave us in order to participate at our first teachers’ clinic, the PTR course in Caramagna (Italy – June 2023). It has provided us not only with the excellent technical contents, but it also gave us the opportunity to compare our abilities with those of the other teachers and to expand our current knowledge. We hope that you will be able to continue to help us during our personal and teachers’ growth path.”

August 2023
PTR Foundation / VDM Scholarship Awarded

We are pleased to share that the Southern Tennis Foundation 2023 recipient of the PTR Foundation/VDM scholarship is Kendall Moody from Columbus, Mississippi.  She is an NJTL student with Golden Triangle Tennis and will be attending Northwest Mississippi Community College in the fall. Kendall will receive $1,000 for the next four years provided she maintains a qualifying GPA.

August 2023
PTR Italy Awards 3 Dennis Van Der Meer Educational Scholarships

Hannes Gapp, Lucia Panin, and Leo Kofler finished a week-long Next Gen certification course.

October 2023
6 Kids Won the Dennis Van der Meer Sportsmanship Award at the 2023 Special Olympics North America Championships

The PTR Foundation awarded six scholarships to these great sportsmen and women. Jackson-Brian Rhondald Peralta, Brogan Blaise Debuhr, Adrian Alexander, Ann Marie Rodgers, Erin Coats and Aubrey Lynn Murphy The award recipients received a HEAD or Dunlop racket, a HEAD racket bag, hat and strings, total price $250. A big shout out to our sponsors – Van Der Meer Tennis Academy and Head Tennis Racquet Sports.

October 2023
PTR Italy Awards Additional Dennis Van Der Meer Educational Scholarships

These are the recipients of PTR Italy VDM Educational Scholarship October 2023. They successfully completed the NextGen certification course and are ready to share their knowledge with their tennis students. Alessandro Borello, Giacomo Bruttomesso, Riccardo Licini, Gianmarco Pandolfi, Loris Petteni, Gioele Pina, Dennis Pollio, Giorgio Scoglio, Anna Soligo, Francesco Vinci and Daniele Zanetti